Athletes guilty but so is WADA

If the athletes of the world have been using methylhexanamine as a food supplement for last couple of years while not being in violation of the WADA code and it suddenly got prohibited, did this information trickle down to all athletes to enable them to stop using it?

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PSM Chandran

New Delhi

September 6, 2010

UPDATED: September 6, 2010 11:53 IST

A dozen of them-six wrestlers, two athletes, three swimmers and one netball player-all Commonwealth Games probables-have boosted India's medal tally in the 'Doping Games' even before the CWG has started.

Mausam Khatri is among six wrestlers who tested postive for banned substance.

The sportspersons who have been caught in the doping net are training at different locations-wrestlers in Patiala and Sonepat, swimmers in Bangalore and Pune, athletes in Patiala and the netball player in Gandhinagar and in Delhi-a perfect case of national integration in the doping games. There is even due weightage given to the 'women's quota'. The credit for this dubious distinction should justifiably go to the sportspersons and to all those who manage the athletes.

But the real question is whether everyone is ready to share the responsibility for this fiasco.

Out of the dozen positive cases for dope, 11 have been tested positive for a salt called methylhexanamine, with a trade name of Geranamine. The remaining one, the netball player, was found positive for an anabolic steroid.

Geranamine is a powerful central nervous system stimulant, which is present in food supplements and is also used as a nasal decongestant. The ingredient is present in geranium oil, which is marketed as cooking oil. Nevertheless, sportspersons use it to gain a definite advantage in their sports, especially where a high level of focus is required.

The substance can help the athlete in increasing alertness and competitiveness and also in delaying fatigue, which is a common feature of CNS stimulants.

It also helps in fat loss, thereby helping athletes who are in weight category sports like wrestling and boxing, where they go for calorie-restricted diet to qualify for a particular weight category.

The drug, which comes in capsule form, is normally taken one or two hours before training or competition to get the best advantage.

Methylhexanamine was not in the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) list of banned substances till recently. But when the news came out that the substance is widely used by Jamaican athletes as a food supplement, and five of them tested positive for the same in 2009, WADA woke up and included it in its list of prohibited substances, coming into effect from January 2010.

Now the debatable question arises. If the athletes of the world have been using methylhexanamine as a food supplement for last couple of years while not being in violation of the WADA code and it suddenly got prohibited, did this information trickle down to all athletes to enable them to stop using it? As a sports doctor working in this area, I have my doubts about this. No doubt WADA publishes the upgraded list of its prohibited substances on its website in the month of January every year and then sits backs thinking it has done a great job.

Considering the obsession of WADA in imposing sanctions on athletes tested positive for drugs, the agency is found wanting in terms of educating the athletes and sharing information on prohibited drugs in the public domain.

WADA has not given enough warning and publicity to the sports fraternity that geranium oil, which is a widely used cooking oil, contains the prohibited substance methylhexanamine.

This is perhaps why the mothers and caterers who cook food for the athletes or chefs at camps and hotels where athletes dine have not stopped using this oil when they cook food for athletes.

Nor has WADA highlighted that decongestants commonly available in the market for treating common cold have a new entrant to their family, methylhexanamine, which can lead to doping problems.

Neither WADA nor its affiliate organisations like NADA, which are funded by governments, ever indulge in such public awareness programmes when it comes to prohibited substances. They expect all the athletes to log onto the WADA website every year, read and understand all about the prohibited substances-which are mentioned in generic names and not even by trade names-and abide by it.

Even sports doctors find it difficult to keep a track of all these updates, since fully committed sports medicine doctors are a rare commodity in our country.

The case of the suspended athletes is still more pathetic since methylhexanamine is a non-specified substance and, as such, the athletes who have used the drug will not get any leniency in sanctions, unlike in the case of specified substances where an athlete tested positive can be let off with a warning or minor sanctions if they can prove that they have inadvertently taken the drug.

It will be illogical for anyone to believe that all these eleven athletes who have tested positive for methyhexanamine were very much aware that the said drug was recently included in the WADA list and that they were still foolish enough to use it and get caught.

It will be interesting to watch the argument if the mothers of any of these athletes come forward and argue that they had used geranium oil. Are they also expected to follow the WADA code at home? Athletes and their coaches have always been demanding food supplements which are safe from the WADA angle for their training. The authorities were denying the same to them owing to fear of getting caught for abetment to doping.

With no help coming from sports managers, support staff, NADA and WADA, the athletes are forced to write their own destiny and fadeout from sports as criminals if they test positive for doping.

WADA and NADA and others in the system will only be too happy to write the obituaries of such athletes, some of them really great sportspersons.

That is the untold story of doping in sports.

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